Lapin au Vin des Central Otago a la Wandering Palate (Rabbit Casserole with Central Otago Pinot Noir) The Wandering Palates rabbit casserole perfected over a lifetime and inspired by an overabundance of rabbits and wild thyme, moreover excellent pinot noir in Central Otago, New Zealand. In my formative years down on the farm in Te Awamutu, rabbits were in plague
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Christmas is a time to share with others. Gather other holiday `orphans' and stage your own dinner - complete with a glass of fine wine. If you haven't planned your Christmas celebration yet, I suggest you dine at home with the carte du jour and wines that we will enjoy. There is a great deal of satisfaction in entertaining at
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These wines are the standouts of the 2009 lunar drinking year. Why the lunar year? Notwithstanding I reside in Asia, the nucleus of my ideologies revolve around a back to nature approach with wine, food and the environment – sustainable, organic and biodynamic principles that have evolved through Pagan farming to Chinese gardeners over the eons yet pivotal today. So
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Cold beer is always good but there are several more sophisticated ways to partner this most popular of Asian cuisines, writes Curtis Marsh. There is a great deal more complexity and flavor in Thai cooking than many other Asian cuisines and, contrary to perception, it can be paired successfully with wine. I can fully relate to an ice-cold beer if
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From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

The Wandering Palate - Curtis Marsh
With nearly 30 years experience in the hospitality, wine and media industries, Curtis Marsh is one of the most erudite, passionate and truly independent wine writer, commentator and presenter in Asia.

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.